Milwaukee priests urge U.S. bishops not to decide on refusing Communion to pro-abortion politicians

Milwaukee, Wis., Oct 21, 2004 / 12:00 am (CNA).- In a letter addressed to Theodore Cardinal McCarrick and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Milwaukee Archdiocese Priest Alliance said it does not believe excluding Catholic pro-abortion politicians from Holy Eucharist would be pastorally effective in promoting the intrinsic value of all human life.

The alliance, which consists of 124 diocesan and religious priests who minister in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, is calling on U.S. bishops to decide that “the final determination of worthiness for the Eucharist is to be made by the communicant–not the minister of Holy Communion.”

“We reaffirm our belief in the intrinsic value of human life– all life is sacred to us–from conception to natural death,” reads the Oct. 15 letter.

“We do not believe that coercive techniques: orders, sanctions, and harsh public statements serve the Catholic Church in our American culture,” they continued.

The priests said: “the Catholic Church in America will have to use the language of persuasion, not force, if it seeks to be credible to American Catholics and our entire society. We must work with the political system and parties that constitute our systems of governance.

“Hard statements and de facto excommunications of Catholic politicians will not bring about changes in Supreme Court decisions nor will they produce amendments to our Constitution.

The priests said they were grounding their appeal in the conclusions of Vatican II and requested “a return to the sound wisdom of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin who proposed a ‘seamless garment’ approach to pro-life issues.